Bristlecone Pines

Bristlecone Pines

Great Basin bristlecone pines – which evolved to grow above 10,000’ elevation in conditions too extreme for competitors – embody the tenuous status of life on our warming planet. As climate change eases environmental conditions within their range, encroaching tree species threaten to overrun these nearly-immortal trees.   Like bristlecone pines, we humans are also limited to our own precise ecological niche: planet earth.